One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Clayton should be used to figure out when it's a good idea to plant sunflowers.

Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

Frost tolerance for sunflowers:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

Sunflowers do not do well in cold weather which means that you have to wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Clayton is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your sunflowers may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your sunflowers indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Clayton. It might get as low as 0°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Clayton may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Clayton last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your sunflowers in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Clayton

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Clayton

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Clayton.